Naval recruiter charged in sexual assault

Updated 9:27 am, Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Photo: Courtesy

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Juan Pena

Juan Pena

Photo: Courtesy

Naval recruiter charged in sexual assault

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

When a 19-year-old woman enlistee sought guidance from a Navy recruiter in the Alamo Heights office, he advised her how to get out of the military, got drunk with her and her cousin and then sexually assaulted the enlistee, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Pena's arrest comes amid increased scrutiny and awareness of sexual misconduct in the military, focused in the last year on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, home of Air Force basic training.

So far, 32 instructors there have been accused of improper conduct with 62 recruits and students, 59 of whom are women. Prosecuted in the military court system, some instructors have been convicted, or like Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc on Tuesday, pleaded guilty.

Information wasn't immediately available on whether other reports of sexual misconduct or sex assault have come from local Navy offices.

On Tuesday, the front doors of the Navy recruiting office in the 5200 block of Broadway, where the alleged assault occurred, were locked and the blinds closed though the lights were on. A phone message left at the office was not returned.

The arrest warrant affidavit for Pena and a separate San Antonio Police Department report involving the cousin, whose name was redacted, provide varying details on who did what to whom and when.

On the afternoon of Dec. 21, the enlistee and her 24-year-old cousin went to see Pena to talk about changing from active duty status to the reserves, according to the affidavit.

Pena advised her to go to boot camp and if she didn't want to stay, he told her to report to her command staff that she was “not happy” so that she could get out of the Navy, the affidavit said.

After the conversation, he invited the two women to stay past office hours and drink with him. He provided the liquor, shut the doors and blinds and both women got drunk in the office's main area, police said.

At some point, the cousin said she saw Pena on top of the enlistee, who was passed out or vomiting, as he allegedly assaulted her.

The cousin left in the enlistee's car, later telling Alamo Heights police that she went to seek help. She hit a parked car several blocks away and was arrested for driving while intoxicated. She later was released to talk to detectives about what happened at the recruiting office, the police report said.

Pena, after the alleged assault, drove the enlistee home, leaving her half-naked on the front porch. Her roommate called police.

Pena contacted his partner at the recruiting office and told him he was in trouble and needed help removing alcohol from the office, the affidavit said. The partner told police he noticed two pairs of women's underwear in the office that Pena described as “gifts” to him.

According to the affidavit, Pena said he had sex with the cousin and that there was sexual activity involving the enlistee, according to the affidavit. The cousin said she didn't remember giving him consent.

Pena's behavior, if reports are true, is “entirely inappropriate,” said former Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin, who is on the board of the advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, which is critical of the military's handling of sexual misconduct and assault claims.

“I think the overarching issue is abuse of power,” Coughlin said, adding that providing alcohol to an underage person is against the law. “Even suggesting, 'Let's sit around and have some drinks' is so out of bounds.”